Today the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass H.R. 3159 which is, imho, an unconstitutional intrusion by Congress into the prerogatives of the President. The President is the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces. Decisions regarding troop assignments, including deployments and rotations, are his alone. Read about the bill here.
One of the few Republicans voting for this bill, as reported on C-Span this afternoon, was Congressman Ron Paul (R - Texas). The official record confirms Congressman Paul voted "Aye."
I cannot understand how a person who seeks the office of the President could so cravenly conspire to usurp the constitutional authority of that office.
The Congressman should be ashamed.
Senator Kerry's Act is Defective
12 years ago
4 comments:
"I cannot understand how a person who seeks the office of the President could so cravenly conspire to usurp the constitutional authority of that office."
Perhaps that's the very reason we should trust the man. He's not running for office for the power as the other candidates certainly are.
Here's what he recently said to Google employees:
"I want to be president, not because I want to run your lives, I don't want to be president to run your economy, and I don't want to be president to run the world. I want to be president to restore liberty. I want a government that protects public privacy and exposes government secrecy."
Article 1, Section 8 states (among the enumerated powers of Congress): "The Congress shall have the power ... to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces; ... and for governing such part of the [militia] as may be employed in the service of the United States..."
And here's the purpose of the bill (quoting from the link provided):
The purpose of H.R. 3159, Ensuring Military Readiness Through
Stability and Predictability Deployment Policy Act of 2007, is to establish a statutory requirement that ensures regular (active) component units and members assigned to those units are provided a minimum period of rest and recuperation that is equal to or longer than the period of the most recent deployment, and a minimum period of rest and recuperation that is at least three times longer than the period of deployment for reserve (National Guard and Reserves) component units and members assigned to those units.
So what's the problem here?
Mark Smith
Mark -- the problem is that The Commander-in-Chief must have the flexibility to deploy his forces as needed in the field... Congress cannot/should not tie his hands in this fashion.
Brandon - You have it exactly backwards. Usurpation of the Executive's power by Congress leads to tyranny not liberty. You should know better and so should Ron Paul.
Mark - I would like to add that this legislation only applies to troop movements in and out of Iraq... it therefore falls outside of the scope of Article 1 Section 8... It is usurpation of the executive's power.
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